Time to Tip the Scales

Instructions

((So, uh, that took way longer than I thought it would. Sorry about that, guys. I'll try to update faster, but lately I've been incredibly busy with school and grades and all that jazz. I can assure you that the next one won't take as long. Sorry! I love you guys! Enjoy the story.))

The cries of the animal could still be heard, cries as if the animal had lost it’s parent or someone close to it. They’d began to get steadily louder as time passed, but nobody seemed to care about or hear them. Of course, very far away, one being was longing to hear those cries and to comfort the animal, but all hope of ever finding it again was lost to him. Instead, it simply had to wait and mourn the loss of it’s friend.

“Can I trust you with something important? I don’t have anyone else I can tell, and from the looks of it you don’t have any adults with you.” Freya murmured, glancing around the forest without really concentrating her gaze on any of the young girls standing in front of her. “It’s something that an adult would never understand.”

Ingrid frowned at the wording of that request. It sounded like she had something tragic to hide, like a dead body.. Or perhaps the weapon she’d used to do it. Something that no adult would understand, what could that possibly mean other than something terrible? Ingrid turned around, hair spinning and brushing lightly against her shoulders from the speed of her movements. She took a single step closer to her two friends, making sure to speak quietly so that Freya wouldn’t hear her--that is, if her name was even Ingrid in the first place. “Guys, I really don’t feel good about this. What if she’s some messed up person trying to kidnap us in the woods? What do we do then?” She hissed, glaring at her two friends as if daring them to disagree with her. There were no words coming from any of the others for a few moments as they considered this dark possibility, before another whisper came from the general direction of Okin, not exactly from her. “Not to worry.” It said, and a faint contented sigh could be heard as all three of the girls relaxed slightly. “Honestly, Ingrid, I wouldn’t believe that. What would we have to lose if we get stuck in the forest anyways? It’s not like we have anybody who would miss us if we leave, that’s why we left in the first place!” Amber explained, voice uncharacteristically intelligent sounding before devolving back to her normal childish reasoning.

Okin was now the only one left to present her opinion on the idea. She looked up to the sky, as if asking the gods for her answer. Her opinions usually were decided on what was the most logical thing to think, but this one was confusing her. Leaving definitely sounded a lot more logical, but she had left because she was looking for adventure, and this was presenting adventure to her.

“I… I suppose we can trust her if you guys think it’s okay. After all, this could be the adventure that we've been looking for.” Okin suggested, smiling nervously at Ingrid and hoping that she wouldn’t get angry. She did have the tendency to get quite angry when someone did something, and her fury was something that Okin was not wishing to see. Thankfully, all that Ingrid did was sigh and roll her eyes, watching the other two with distaste clearly showing through her features.

“Fine.” She hissed, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “We can do whatever you want, as it seems my vote doesn’t matter.” Her dark green eyes showed fury in their depths, but a reluctant agreement that they probably wouldn’t die. Probably.

When Freya heard those words, she smiled widely, adjusting the way she was standing to make her look a bit more presentable, instead of the troublemaker image that she gave off. With dark blue eyes still flitting nervously around the trees of the late autumn forest, she started walking in a direction unfamiliar to the trio of runaway girls. Her footsteps had always been light against the fallen leaves underfoot, but these girls were surely alerting every animal in the forest of their presence there. Unfortunately, that would probably scare off any hopes for dinner that Freya would have had, but for now there was something big on her hands that she needed to take care of.

“Walk more swiftly,” Freya instructed after a while, “so that less people will suspect that we’re here. Walk with a flowing motion, so that your weight is spread across your entire foot instead of just your heels or just your toes.” When the others didn’t heed her instructions, the forest-goer sighed. It was no use, trying to teach these girls, so she would just have to show them why. She ran off in a separate direction, leaving the trio to be wandering blind through the forest. Not the best thing to do to gain trust, but surely something to show the thickheaded girls that it was possible for them to be wrong.

“Freya?” Amber called nervously, looking around the forest as if something could pop out from anywhere. There were no footsteps to be heard, and the direction that she’d gone was surely not the right place to go. Amber, Ingrid, and Okin paused right where they were standing in fear that they would get lost if they took a single step more.

A low rustling came from behind them, just so that the girls would know that there was someone there. A sigh came from a feminine voice, with a frown on the face of the owner. She looked, very disapprovingly, at the three girls who had completely ignored her advice. “Listen next time, will you? There’s something here, something close, and I don’t want it to be disturbed by your walking.”